Organizer kicking off #BeAHero rally in Bristol, Vermont, asks why there needs to be another military branch devoted to space when Americans don’t have health care. @MariInTheHouse, @AdyBarkan and @SenSanders scheduled to speak soon.
Not sure I’ve seen this before: @MariInTheHouse, nurse running for state rep, introduces her three rivals for Dem primary and lets them each plug their campaign pages. Says she “feels like I have three new brothers.”
Now @AdyBarkan speaking. Apologizes for his difficulty because of ALS (and after intense #BeAHero tour). Calls for universal health care - gets round of applause.
“Every single one of the major Democratic candidates will be running on a single payer plan,” @adybarkan says about 2020. “That is progress.”
Next speakers are running a little behind, so there’s some time to kill.
“Let’s sing some songs,” someone shouts from crowd.
“Can we sing ‘This Land Is Your Land’ again?” @MariInTheHouse suggests. So we get a reprise.
Progressives are in a “monumental struggle” to get universal health care, @SenSanders says.
But other groups have faced monumental struggles too, he adds — the suffragettes a century ago, for instance — and now, it seems impossible that we would deny women the right to vote.
Bernie references @PeterSullivan4’s story on private interests mobilizing to stop single-payer and predicts they’ll run TV ads to scare people away.
“Mark my words,” Bernie says. “I would bet you, but I don’t want to take your money.” thehill.com/policy/healthc…
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Kavanaugh has been grilled on his clerkship for Judge Kozinski.
What we reported this morning: Alex Azar also clerked for Kozinski — and his abrupt departure is how Kavanaugh got the job.
It’s also the latest example of how Kavanaugh and Azar’s professional lives have intersected, again and again.
The Yale Law graduates - and close friends - clerked on the Supreme Court together, worked on Starr investigation together and both joined Bush v. Gore legal team.
Now one is a Trump cabinet secretary, and the other is poised to be a Supreme Court justice, ruling on matters that affect HHS.
The Obamacare legal challenge to get rid of pre-existing condition protections, which Kavanaugh was repeatedly asked about? The case is Texas v. Azar.
SCOOP: Trump administration prepping more controversial Medicaid changes that could lead to tens of thousands additional people losing coverage. politico.com/story/2018/08/…
For instance, Trump team is poised to tell Native Americans that they may have to get jobs to keep their health care — an explosive issue, given centuries-old U.S. promises to the tribes. politico.com/story/2018/08/…
Trump also plans to let Scott Walker ask Wisconsin Medicaid applicants if they’ve ever used drugs or are in recovery. That’s expected to scare some applicants away. politico.com/story/2018/08/…
Under Trump, the 120-person research office — filled with career civil servants — has produced multiple reports over staff objections. (The reports were quickly debunked by fact-checkers.) politico.com/story/2018/07/…
In one episode, first reported by the NYT, political appointees quashed a 55-page report on the positive impact of refugees. Office issued a 3-page report on refugees’ costs instead. politico.com/story/2018/07/…
NEW: The health department is quietly spending tens of millions of dollars on Trump’s migrant fiasco, siphoning money away from other priorities. politico.com/story/2018/07/…
HHS was planning to move around $263 million to pay for unaccompanied kids program — until media scrutiny exploded last month and they decided to pause.
Given the internal deficits they’re creating, HHS will still need to move that money. politico.com/story/2018/07/…
I ran by the Newseum’s wall of 50 state newspapers, with front pages from around the nation.
Two takeaways:
- Unlike national media’s focus on Russia, local papers collectively focused much more on health care problems.
- Most of those health care problems were opioid-related.
For instance, here’s the front page of the South Dakota @argusleader’s Sunday edition — probably the most-read issue all week.
Note how the paper covers both the Russia investigation and opioids. (And which gets more play.)
A number of local papers, including the Herald-Dispatch (W. Va.) and the Sunday Telegram (Maine), had stories on how health issues — including the opioid crisis — are stressing first responders.
— $36k for a three-day charter jet trip that only had 3.5 hours of official mtgs
— $12k for a personal flight to Georgia resort island where Price owned land
— $254k for failing to check for lower-cost travel options
Price also took a chartered flight to Oklahoma after our first story broke — but then once we reported on *that* trip, canceled his flight home (which still cost taxpayers).